Canada
Canada are a CONCACAF national team who qualified for the 2022 World Cup after a 36-year absence, winning CONCACAF qualifying with the best record in the region’s history.
The 2022 qualification campaign was the moment Canadian football stopped being a polite ambition and became a fact. Canada won 8 of 14 matches in the final Hexagonal round, finishing first ahead of the United States and Mexico with 28 points, a record for CONCACAF final round qualifying. That number matters: it was not a scramble to the line, it was a dominant campaign from a team that knew it was better than the region’s traditional powers had prepared for.
Alphonso Davies is the face of that generation and one of the most recognisable players in world football. The Bayern Munich left-back, who was born in a Ghanaian refugee camp and moved to Canada as a young child, plays with a speed and directness that makes him the best wide player in the Bundesliga. His ability to carry the ball from his own half into dangerous positions in seconds is a tactical asset few nations possess. At the 2022 World Cup, Canada’s campaign ended in the group stage, but Davies’s performance against Belgium was the confirmation that he would be a generational talent for years.
Jonathan David has spent his peak years at Lille and emerged as one of the most clinical finishers in Ligue 1, consistently scoring 20-plus goals per season. The question for Canada has always been whether the creative support structure around Davies and David is sufficient at tournament level. The midfield, anchored by Stephen Eustáquio, provides energy and work rate. Tajon Buchanan and Liam Millar give directness from wide positions.
Jesse Marsch, who took over the national team in 2023, has applied the same high-press, vertical principles he developed at RB Leipzig and Leeds United. The system suits Davies perfectly and asks forwards to press aggressively from the front. Canada concede counter-attack chances when the press is bypassed, which against CONMEBOL and UEFA sides at tournament level is a meaningful vulnerability.
For 2026, Canada is a co-host. Matches will be played in Toronto, Vancouver, and potentially other cities. For fans in Canada, this is the first time the home crowd will be present at a World Cup since 1986, when Canada participated in their only previous tournament appearance in Mexico. The noise inside BMO Field for a Canada group stage match will be unlike anything Canadian football has produced before.